Sesung Tribal Administration staff would have to seek office accommodation soon as the Village Development Committee plans to evict them from their premises which they occupied since 1985.

In an interview, Kgosi Tumiso Tsietso of Sesung in the Letlhakeng Sub-district said ever since his kgotla was established in 1985, they had any tribal office to operate from.

“My village was established in 1982, and three years later, the position of a headman of records was established, which then called for the establishment of the tribal offices. But, since then empty promises had been made. In 1987 the first police officers were posted to the village and they had been operating from VDC premises,” he said.

He said in 1988, they were asked to secure a plot for the construction of a tribal administration block. Ten years later, they were allocated the plot which had been sitting idle ever since, he added. “When we enquired, we were informed that the funds had been diverted to fighting the HIVAIDS pandemic, and now funds had been shifting ever since,” he said.

Kgosi Tsietso said the tribal administration staff had increased, adding that they had five police officers and a court clerk who also did not have residential accommodation.

“If the tribal offices can be constructed it is our hope that the package will include staff houses, as the court clerk currently rents an unsuitable house in the village, and one of the police officers commutes daily from Thebephatshwa,” he said.

The court clerk, Ms Banyana Keabetswe said currently they are using VDC facilities for office space and the VDC has been planning to evict them to allocate it to tenants who will pay them rent.

The house, she said has no burglar bars and it could easily be broken into and office files stolen. The tribal administration does not pay any rent to the VDC, which makes the VDC reluctant to maintain the dilapidated structure, she said.

For her part, the VDC chairperson, Ms Motshele Ngaka confirmed that indeed they harbour the thought of evicting the tribal administration staff from their structure.

“The VDC makes money solely through renting out its property, but the tribal administration has been using our house free of charge for a long time now, so we want a tenant who pays rent,” she said.

She said they could have long evicted them, but because they realised that they had nowhere to go, they exercised mercy even though it affected their financial well-being.

On other issues, Kgosi Tsietso said crime rate in his village was low, adding that common nuisance cases have also declined.

However, he raised concern over the issue of cohabitation, which he said breeds passion killings among the young people. He said this year alone, the village registered two cases of passion killings by a cohabiting couple.